March, 2019

• 24 March

  Relax, things aren’t so bad at Tencent

  

  Oh, come on, it’s not that bad. Okay, so maybe Tencent Holdings Ltd. did post its biggest net-income miss in, like, forever. And operating profit fell off a cliff. And revenue at its largest division (value-added services) climbed an anemic 9 percent. But still, the situation at China’s games and social-networking powerhouse really isn’t so terrible. Even if things are ...

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• 24 March

  Lyft fills in some blanks, but not the big one

  Lyft Inc. filled in a few blanks about its closely watched initial public offering. The company can’t answer the essential question of whether its business is viable or what price investors should put on the company’s potential and its pitfalls. First, the new hard numbers. Lyft disclosed in an amended investor document that it plans to sell about 30.8 million ...

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• 24 March

  India’s stocks rally clouded by fog of war

  It’s amazing what a bit of chest-beating and military posturing can do. India’s war of words with and air strikes on Pakistan have reinvigorated the re-election campaign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Opinion polls (if you believe them) are predicting a bigger margin of victory for Modi’s National Democratic Alliance than they were two months ago. A creeping skepticism that ...

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• 24 March

  Europe is preparing for the end of Theresa May

  

  Europe is no stranger to last-ditch emergency summits in which 28 countries try to patch up their differences in the face of a crisis, or on the brink of a meltdown, or at the precipice of disaster – whichever way you choose to phrase it. The only unknown is at which ungodly hour bleary-eyed officials will emerge with a solution. ...

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• 24 March

  Hong Kong taxi drivers are getting a lot older

  

  The South China Morning Post published an analysis of the 210,000 licensed drivers of Hong Kong’s iconic taxi fleet. Those Toyota Crown sedans are a venerable design, released in 1995. More venerable still are its drivers, nearly half of whom are older than 60. Hong Kong’s taxi drivers are a service sector aging in real time, a microcosm of a ...

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• 24 March

  Norwegian can’t easily solve its 737 Max problem

  

  Luck plays a much greater role in success than successful people often acknowledge, and the same applies to business. Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, which like its peers has been forced to ground its 18-strong fleet of 737 Max planes following the tragedy in Ethiopia, could certainly use some serendipity. While corporate fortunes seem unimportant when you’re talking about a large ...

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• 24 March

  Direct lenders ready to step in as Brexit makes banks retreat

  

  Bloomberg Direct lenders are gearing up for more business in the UK as they see banks shrinking their sterling corporate loan books in the wake of Brexit-linked volatility and slower economic growth. Private credit fund managers say they are already witnessing an increase in deal flow as traditional lenders turn more cautious in the run up to Britain leaving the ...

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• 24 March

  BOE: More firms trigger plans for no-deal Brexit

  

  Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) said more companies are triggering plans for a no-deal Brexit as it kept policy in a holding pattern while the government takes withdrawal talks to the brink. Around two-thirds of firms surveyed by the central bank said they had started implementing contingencies for a disorderly departure from the European Union. About 80 percent judged ...

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• 24 March

  Fed nominee Moore says Dec rate hike was a mistake

  

  Bloomberg Federal Reserve nominee Stephen Moore called the Fed’s December interest-rate hike “a very substantial mistake” while adding that he looks forward to working with Chairman Jerome Powell to help ensure the US economy continues to expand. “Everyone would now acknowledge that what they did in December with the rate increase — it was a very substantial mistake,” Moore said ...

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• 24 March

  US sanctions Venezuela’s bank Bandes

  

  Bloomberg The US imposed sanctions against Venezuela’s national development bank and four financial institutions it controls, alleging it helped prop up the government of the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro. The penalties were imposed on Banco de Desarrollo Economico y Social de Venezuela, or Bandes, the Treasury Department said. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin cited the arrest of opposition leader Juan Guaido’s ...

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